A hidden asteroid family may share Venus' orbit: 'It's like discovering a continent you didn't know existed'
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Astronomers are investigating a little-known and largely unseen group of asteroids that quietly orbit the sun alongside Venus — and there may be many more of them than we thought.
"It's like discovering a continent you didn't know existed," Valerio Carruba of the São Paulo State University in Brazil, who led the analysis, told Space.com. "It's very likely there are other asteroids we don't observe today."
These space rocks, known as "Venus co-orbital asteroids," are a special class of asteroids that move in lockstep with the planet, sharing its orbit around the sun. To date, only about 20 have been confirmed — but a new study conducted by Carruba and his colleagues suggests many more may be lurking just out of sight.
Most Venus co-orbital asteroids are exceptionally difficult to detect from Earth. They appear close to the sun in the sky, an area where ground-based telescopes have limited visibility. Even under ideal conditions, their rapid motion makes them tricky to track.
Only one of the known Venus co-orbital asteroids follows a nearly circular orbit; the others move on more elongated paths that sometimes bring them closer to Earth, making them easier to detect. However, Carruba's team believes this pattern may reflect observational bias, not the actual makeup of the population.
"It's impossible to say for sure," he said, "but I suspect we will find hundreds of asteroids around Venus."
To test this idea, Carruba's team ran computer simulations modeling the orbits of hundreds of hypothetical Venus co-orbital asteroids, projecting their paths up to 36,000 years into the future.
They found that many of these objects can remain gravitationally bound to Venus' orbit for an average of about 12,000 years. Of note, the orbits of the objects appeared chaotic, meaning small shifts over time can push them onto different paths, including some that bring them close to Earth.
There's no cause for concern right now; none of the known asteroids pose any threat, and the timescales involved span many thousands of years.
"The likelihood of one colliding with Earth any time soon is extremely low," Scott Sheppard, an astronomer at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. who was not involved with the new study, told National Geographic. "There isn't too much to be worried about here."
In a study published earlier this year in the journal Icarus, Carruba's team analyzed the orbital evolution of the 20 known Venus co-orbital asteroids. Their simulations showed that three of these objects — each measuring between 1,000 and 1,300 feet (300 to 400 meters) across — could eventually pass within about 46,500 miles (74,800 kilometers) of Earth's orbit. In some cases, this gradual shift onto a near-Earth trajectory could take up to 12,000 years.
Keeping track of such objects and understanding how they move is crucial for building a more complete picture of near-Earth space, the new study argues.
"We should know about these objects," said Carruba. "They are very interesting dynamically — I think that would be a reason to continue to study them."
Because Venus' asteroids are so difficult to spot from Earth, Carruba's team explored how we might do better from other vantage points. Their simulations showed that a spacecraft orbiting closer to Venus would have a much better chance of detecting these fast-moving asteroids.
Related Stories:
— The Rubin Observatory found 2,104 asteroids in just a few days. It could soon find millions more
— Europe wants to land a tiny spacecraft on the infamous asteroid Apophis in 2029
— Astronomers discover the largest comet from the outskirts of the solar system is exploding with jets of gas
The upcoming Vera C. Rubin Observatory, which just released its first images on June 23,, could also help. Although it's not specifically built to focus on the inner solar system, its special twilight observing campaigns might be able to catch some of these hidden asteroids. In fact, the observatory has already identified 2,104 new asteroids in its initial datasets.
Further into the future, a proposed mission concept called CROWN could offer an even more targeted approach. The mission concept envisions a fleet of small spacecraft operating near Venus' orbit, designed specifically to search for asteroids in the inner solar system.
These efforts "may be able to discover a lot of these objects, if they exist," said Carruba.
This research was posted to arXiv on May 21 and will be published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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- Associated Press
Still top cause of death, the types of heart disease people are dying from is changing
Published [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] Research Highlights: Over the past 50 years, overall heart disease death rates have dropped by 66% and deaths from heart attacks have declined by nearly 90%. The types of heart disease people are dying from most often have shifted from heart attacks to an increase in deaths from heart failure, arrhythmias and hypertensive heart disease. Researchers say this shift, in part, is the result of advances in public health measures focused on prevention and life-saving interventions to improve early diagnosis and treatment, allowing people to live longer while managing chronic heart conditions Embargoed until 4 a.m. CT/5 a.m. ET Wednesday, June 25, 2025 ( NewMediaWire ) - June 25, 2025 - DALLAS — While heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the U.S. for over a century, the past 50 years have seen a substantial decrease (66%) in overall age-adjusted heart disease death rates, including a nearly 90% drop in heart attack deaths, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association , an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association. During that time, there have been major shifts in the types of heart disease people are dying from, with large increases in deaths from heart failure , arrhythmias and hypertensive heart disease . In an analysis of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers reviewed the age-adjusted rates of heart disease deaths among adults ages 25 and older from 1970 to 2022. The analysis found: Over this 52-year period, heart disease accounted for nearly one-third of all deaths (31%). During this time, heart disease death rates decreased substantially, from 41% of total deaths in 1970 to 24% of total deaths in 2022. In 1970, more than half of all people who died from heart disease (54%) died because of a heart attack – a type of acute ischemic heart disease. The age-adjusted death rate decreased 89% by 2022, when less than one-third of all heart disease deaths (29%) were caused by a heart attack. Conversely, during this time, the age-adjusted death rate from all other types of heart disease (including heart failure, hypertensive heart disease and arrhythmia) increased by 81%, accounting for 9% of all heart disease deaths in 1970 and 47% of all heart disease deaths in 2022. 'This distribution shift in the types of heart disease people were dying from the most was very interesting to us,' said the study's first author, Sara King, M.D., a second-year internal medicine resident in the department of medicine at Stanford School of Medicine in Stanford, California. 'This evolution over the past 50 years reflects incredible successes in the way heart attacks and other types of ischemic heart disease are managed. However, the substantial increase in deaths from other types of heart conditions, including heart failure and arrhythmias, poses emerging challenges the medical community must address.' 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'Over the past 50 years, our understanding of heart disease, what causes it and how we treat it has evolved considerably. That's especially true in how we address acute cardiac events that may appear to come on suddenly,' King said. 'From the establishment and increased use of bystander CPR and automated external defibrillators to treat cardiac arrest outside the hospital setting, to the creation of systems of care that promote early recognition of and quick procedural and medical intervention to treat heart attacks, there have been great strides made in helping people survive initial acute cardiac events that were once considered a death sentence.' Other specific advancements noted in the study included: The invention in the 1960s of coronary artery bypass grafting and the formation of coronary care units improved in-hospital and long-term heart disease death rates. Cardiac imaging improved in the 1970s with coronary angiography, which was capitalized by the advent of balloon angioplasty in 1977, followed by coronary stenting to open blocked heart arteries in the 1980s to 1990s. Simultaneously, there was significant development of medical therapies in the 1970s to 1990s, including thrombolytics and aspirin to reduce blockages; beta blockers to treat high blood pressure; renal-angiotensin-aldosterone system inhibitors to slow the progression of heart and kidney disease; and statins to control cholesterol. These advances all contributed to the decline in deaths from treatment and deaths due to a second or subsequent acute cardiac event. At the turn of the 21st century, high-intensity statin therapy to lower cholesterol and dual antiplatelet therapy to reduce clotting were established, as well as landmark 'door-to-balloon' trials that displayed substantial benefits when care to open blocked arteries was expedited. 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'While heart attack deaths are down by 90% since 1970, heart disease hasn't gone away. Now that people are surviving heart attacks, we are seeing a rise in other forms of heart disease like heart failure. The focus now must be on helping people age with strong, healthy hearts by preventing events, and prevention can start as early as childhood.' 'The American Heart Association has been a leader in both the medical advancements and the policy and guideline initiatives that have contributed to the reduction in overall heart disease deaths,' said Keith Churchwell, M.D., FAHA, the 2024-2025 American Heart Association volunteer president, an associate clinical professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut and an adjunct associate professor of Medicine at the Vanderbilt School of Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee. 'Through the nearly $6 billion dollars the Association has invested in scientific research since 1948, we have enhanced the knowledge of how we diagnose and treat heart disease in almost all forms. We have been a catalyst in collaborations with the public and private sectors in support of public health policies to improve the communities in which people live, work, learn and play. And we know, that by following the prescription of our Life's Essential 8(TM) health measures, we can prevent most heart disease and reduce deaths from heart disease by reducing the health risk factors that contribute to it.' The American Heart Association's Life's Essential 8 is a measure of cardiovascular health that includes eight essential components for ideal heart and brain health – 4 health behaviors and 4 health factors, including: Eat better. Be more active. Quit tobacco. Get healthy sleep. Manage weight. Control cholesterol. Manage blood sugar. Manage blood pressure. 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The use of multiple iterations of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) coding system may allow for potential miscoding and presents challenges in maintaining consistency in comparisons across the years. Particularly prominent is the change from ICD-8 to ICD-9 in the year 1979, where the mortality of several conditions (valvular heart disease, hypertensive heart disease, pulmonary heart disease) dramatically increased. The true burden of ischemic heart disease may be underestimated in the findings presented in this study, since certain conditions including heart failure, cardiomyopathy, arrhythmias and in particular ventricular arrhythmias and cardiac arrest, may be overly simplistic. Many of these cases likely have underlying causes that cannot be precisely differentiated using current or past ICD codes. Co-authors, disclosures and funding sources are listed in the manuscript. Studies published in the American Heart Association's scientific journals are peer-reviewed. The statements and conclusions in each manuscript are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Association's policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The Association receives more than 85% of its revenue from sources other than corporations. These sources include contributions from individuals, foundations and estates, as well as investment earnings and revenue from the sale of our educational materials. Corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations to the Association. The Association has strict policies to prevent any donations from influencing its science content. Overall financial information is available here . Additional Resources: ### About the American Heart Association The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. Dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities, the organization has been a leading source of health information for more than one hundred years. Supported by more than 35 million volunteers globally, we fund groundbreaking research, advocate for the public's health, and provide critical resources to save and improve lives affected by cardiovascular disease and stroke. By driving breakthroughs and implementing proven solutions in science, policy, and care, we work tirelessly to advance health and transform lives every day. Connect with us on , Facebook , X or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1. For Media Inquiries and AHA/ASA Expert Perspective: 214-706-1173 Cathy Lewis: [email protected] For Public Inquiries: 1-800-AHA-USA1 (242-8721) and
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